Notice: This is not a Dodge Viper registry (like a database of VINs).
The upshot: I have created my own Dodge Viper database, aimed at helping owners and enthusiasts alike find information on the famed supercar.
Navigation: Make your way to the “Fun Stuff” tab on the site, scroll to “Dodge Viper”, and click “The ViperDex”.
The Announcement:
How many of you get annoyed with rampant misconceptions, misinformation, and flat out basic ignorance regarding the Viper? Not the innocent kind of someone learning about the car, but the confident regurgitating of known falsehoods often seen around the internet. You know what I’m talking about: “The Dodge Viper can’t handle”, “The V10 is from a truck”, “The Gen 3 is a ‘Vette copy”, and so on and so forth. How many of you are irritated by these fallacies? How many of you are done seeing these long debunked “facts” pop up in videos, articles, other media, and real life conversations again and again. I know I am, and I’ve long been. That annoyance is one of two motivators for the subject matter of today’s announcement.
The second motivator is because of a situation that happened a little over two years ago. Back in 2021, I was working on articles about two seemingly forgotten (or little known) Dodge Viper concepts: The Pacifica Prototype and the Carbon Concept. To make a long story short, I was immediately confronted with the problem of information during my research. Specifically, how scattered knowledge was around the internet. I wanted to cross-reference as many sources as available to ensure accuracy (or at least minimize inaccuracy), but that was hard considering no sources had complete information on either snakes. And even if one did have complete information, it rarely had references I could look into for further verification. Not to mention what I had to do just to find these sources in the first place…
Bottom line: It shouldn’t be like this. Those concepts and various others are too cool to be that difficult to research. Known falsehoods have been debunked way too many times to be continually perpetuated this much in the automotive world. Lastly, there is far too much Dodge Viper information –important information– not to be consolidated in one place for the benefit of owners and enthusiasts alike. That is why I am very excited and proud to finally reveal the ViperDex! A new Dodge Viper archive made by Cody’s Car Conundrum (me lol) with the sole intent of filling the aforementioned hole.
Currently there are overview pages for all generations of Dodge Viper. Each of which containing a brief opening statement summarizing that Gen, general information about power output, performance figures (claimed and observed), and exterior dimensions. Now I know, that’s not a lot of information for a Dodge Viper archive. Rest assured though, significantly more is coming in the future. Even the overview pages aren’t in their final forms yet. Take a look at the list below to get an idea of some of the planned additions:
- Year-by-year changes
- Engine codes
- Curb weight(s)
- Wheel weights (like the weight of a whole wheel, not the things used for balancing)
- Track records (former and current)
- Trims and features
- Vipers that could’ve been (the infamous mid-engine proposal for example)
- Dedicated design pages (aimed at exploring the styling of all Vipers)
- Viper event information (Viper Rendezvous, Snakes On The Hills, etc)
- Fun facts/trivia
- And tons more
With that (plus much more), I strive to create the most comprehensive source on Dodge Viper information out there. It’s a herculean task, but no one ever said “being the change you want to see in the world” would be a walk in the park.
Now that the main announcement is out of the way, I want to take the time to address some comments I’ve seen as well as preemptively answer some questions that might come up in the comment section.
-Community input: If you have additional information, sources, or corrections for the ViperDex then don’t hesitate to let me know! You can either message me here on Facebook or email me: staff@codyscarconundrum.com – Definitely make sure to reach out if you have corrections! Note: While it isn’t required, corrections are more likely and more quickly to be made if supporting evidence is given. While this still doesn’t guarantee anything, it makes the process of verifying corrections vastly easier. Team Viper members or highly knowledgeable people (Dan Lesser, Scot Rickord, etc) won’t need to worry about this quite as much, as you guys basically are the verification.
-Technical/How-to info: After reading a couple of comments in prior weeks about the need for a better place to upload, search, and find how-to/technical information, I wanted to say those comments did not go unheard. Need to figure out some stuff there, but it is on my mind.
Viper Racing History.com: I want to say right now that I will not be diving into this side of Viper history like Shawn has. He has that well covered and there is nobody better for the job than him. If you want to know how many Dodge Viper racecars there were, their history, where they are now, and their results in motorsports, you owe it to yourself to check out his site ASAP!
-Longevity: Those on the internet around the time of the .com bubble burst might remember there were actually a handful of Viper indexes in existence at that time. Unfortunately, all but one have gone the way of the dodo (with the last one being outdated). Obviously then, the question becomes this: What am I going to do to prevent or mitigate the same fate from befalling the ViperDex? Simple: Backups. The information you see (and will see) isn’t only on the ViperDex. At least not the website version of it. I have a “local” version where I actually do all the aggregating. This prevents data loss should something bad happen to my website. To prevent something bad from happening to the local version, I will soon copy the information I have over to another place just in case.